Morgan Stanley’s local infrastructure fund picks up stake in iBus

Morgan Stanley’s India Infrastructure Fund has acquired a stake in iBus Network and Infrastructure for Rs 150 crore ($20 million), the companies said in a statement.

iBus offers in-building wireless solutions, outdoor small cells and other last-mile connectivity solutions to mobile operators to enable them to serve their customers. 

The company deploys its infrastructure across 233 commercial, residential and retail sites across the country with a tenanted area of 276 million square feet.

“Distributed Antenna Systems such as in-building solutions have been fragmented and silo-ed for a long time. With this investment, iBus will build scale and eliminate inefficiencies to fast-track digitisation of our economy,” said Ram Sellaratnam, Sunil Menon and Subash Vasudevan, co-founders of iBus.

Cipher-Plexus Capital Advisor was the exclusive advisor for the transaction.

The statement said that the growth of iBus is intricately linked to India’s data consumption and digital infrastructure story. 

The firm also provides other solutions such as O-RAN deployment and data analytics.

“We are excited to partner with a management team that is establishing itself as the in-building solutions partner of choice for telecom operators. Our investment will allow iBus to drive consolidation and scale in a fragmented industry while enhancing the mobile user experience,” said Raja Parthasarathy, managing director and co-head of the India Infrastructure Fund.

Founded in 2013 by three first-generation entrepreneurs, iBus has previously raised capital from investors and family offices.

The India Infrastructure Fund is a platform of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners. In India, it has invested in Unison Enviro, a city gas distribution company; HealthMap Diagnostics; and LEAP India, which specialises in supply chain solutions such as pooling of pallets.